Traveling with infants that have outgrown their nappies and/or during the period of their potty training might be a challenge for parents or guardians, due to a necessity to carry along all the training gear, such as a potty chair or a kids' adapted lavatory seat.
Most common problems that arise during that time are associated with an infant's desire to do things solely into a familiar, home-use potty, which is often provided as quite a massive chair; thereby, is not particularly suitable for air travel, for example, and/or any kind of long or short travel. Even relatively compact potty gear, such as one-piece molded solutions, for example, is often challenging to fit into a (hand) luggage or a bag due to a specific shape of said potty gear. From the other hand, lavatory seats adapted for kids, although flat and convenient to carry, are rather poorly suitable for infants aged 1-3 years, in terms of the infants' (small) size and general considerations of hygiene.
Foldable, defined hereby as collapsible and expandable, potty chair solutions provide a feasible solution for use during traveling, camping, shopping and/or staying at somebody's house, for example. By the way of an example, WO 2013/122487 (Pancerz et al) teaches a disposable folding potty comprising a plurality of annularly arranged vertical folds with a folding direction towards the center of a receptacle. Due to provision of multiple interconnected elements, feasibility of this potty device in sometimes harsh travelling conditions appears questionable. Portable potty solutions, in where folding is implemented by piling a receptacle down, are further described in the patent publications GB 2 184 650 (Beer et al) and U.S. Pat. No. 7,334,273 (Thomas). All abovementioned solutions require fitting a disposable bag therewithin, which is not always possible/convenient in conditions of “emergency”.
In this regard, it is still desirable to provide a smart and simple solution for a portable potty gear that would turn out sufficiently comfortable for an infant and, at the same time, cause least trouble to parents, with regard to transporting, (dis)assembling and cleaning.